Wednesday, 10 August 2016

Book Review: The Girl with all the Gifts by MR Carey

Melanie is a very special girl. Dr. Caldwell calls her "our little genius."

Every
morning, Melanie waits in her cell to be collected for class. When they
come for her, Sergeant Parks keeps his gun pointing at her while two of
his people strap her into the wheelchair. She thinks they don't like
her. She jokes that she won't bite, but they don't laugh.

Melanie
loves school. She loves learning about spelling and sums and the world
outside the classroom and the children's cells. She tells her favorite
teacher all the things she'll do when she grows up. Melanie doesn't know
why this makes Miss Justineau look sad.

My Review: Melanie
waits every day in her cell on a military base to be strapped in and
restrained before she is taken to school. She never goes anywhere else
except to shower and never gets to go outside to play. Melanie is a very
clever little girl and wonders why her teacher looks sad when some of
the students stop coming to class. And she wonders why the soldiers are
so afraid of her...

A few friends told me that this book would be
just my thing but wouldn't tell me what it was about, which I found a
bit strange. Having read and enjoyed it, I can understand why they
didn't want to spoil anything and let me find out for myself. Within the
first chapter, I knew exactly what was happening and what it was my
friends thought I would enjoy. So now I'm writing this review I have a
slight problem. Just how much of the book do I reveal in this review?
Hmmm. I'm going to assume that those who are reading this have already
read the book and mark the review as having spoilers, as I MUST talk
about the main stuff to write a decent review. So if you don't know what
it is about and are about to read it, come back here after or things
are about to be spoiled!

OK, are you ready for spoilerville? Here
we go! Melanie and her classmates are all zombie children who are being
studied because they are different from adult zombies. They retain
their intelligence, movement, communication skills and can be in close
contact with human adults who use a scent blocker to stop smelling like
dinner. Sgt Eddie Parks does not trust the children and keeps them
restrained while their teacher Helen views them as real children. Dr
Caroline Caldwell sees them as test subjects to be tested and dissected
in order to find a cure for the zombie virus. And outside the base,
zombies roam wild along with uninfected humans who refuse to live in
safe zones and who are plotting to destroy the base.

So that
pretty much sets the scene for the story. The thing I really liked about
the characters is that there was no real bad guy. I could understand
the feelings and motivations of each character who have different views
of the children. Helen works with them every day, seeing their
personalities and talents so it is no surprise that she hates the fate
that await them when they outlive their usefulness. Melanie is her
favourite and she is almost a normal little girl except for the virus,
so the reader is appalled at the idea of her being next on the list to
be cut open. However Caroline is actually trying to save humanity by
finding a cure and the infected children seem to hold the answer, so you
can see why she is doing it. Eddie is trying to keep the base safe from
monsters and dislikes having them on the actual base, knowing how
dangerous they are. I can understand that as well. It leads to a complex
problem which is great for the plot.

Under pressure to come up
with a cure, Carolyn decides to work with the smartest kid and arranges
for Melanie to be brought to the lab to be dissected. Helen finds out
and is equally determined to save the child. The drama suddenly
increases as the people outside attack the base, using the zombies to
tear down the fence. Suddenly the base is compromised and Eddie has to
get Caroline and Helen to safety with Helen insisting on bringing
Melanie. Now Caroline only has one potential subject and no lab, and
Helen does not trust her near Melanie. To complicate things further on
this bizarre road trip, they are running out of scent blockers and
zombies are everywhere...

This is totally different from any
other zombie book that I've read and that is why I liked it so much. I
liked all the characters in their own way though at times I could have
throttled Caroline. But that is how you are meant to feel about her I
guess! It is not an all out zombiefest kind of book-this is about the
characters and their interactions and I found it quite intriguing and
entertaining. I would recommend it to those looking for something a bit
different in their zombie books.

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